


What the Dawn Would Bring

by alicenmax (Elsfia)



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst and Feels, Complicated Relationships, Elvhen Language, F/M, Fade Dreams, Goodbyes, In the Fade, Lucid Dreaming, Post-Canon, Post-Dragon Age: Inquisition - Trespasser DLC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:22:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24454360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsfia/pseuds/alicenmax
Summary: They haven't talked in quite a while.
Relationships: Female Lavellan/Solas
Kudos: 11





	What the Dawn Would Bring

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Что ни придёт с рассветом](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24454519) by [so-ellie-s (Elsfia)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsfia/pseuds/so-ellie-s)



Now, as she sleeps, she knows she is walking in the Fade. 

Somehow, she is no longer fooled by her dreams. She realizes immediately that she is sleeping, maybe due to this strong inner feeling of _wrongness_. It isn't obvious, though. She often dreams of Skyhold, and her quarters look exactly the same now as she remembers; even a cup of tea she left on the desk before going to bed is there. 

Maybe that's what gives it away this time, anyway. The cup still feels slightly warm, and it's already breaking dawn behind the tall windows. 

She doesn't stay at the desk for too long; shaking off the feeling of the vivid unreality in such astonishing, albeit not flawless detail, she heads for the open balcony. 

The view is breathtaking, as always, and a small breeze makes her breathe even deeper. Her spellcast arm, woven of spirit magic threads, is slightly tingling against the cool air. Leaning over the balustrade, she stands still, listening quietly to sleeping Skyhold. It doesn't even matter it isn't real. She hasn't been so at peace for… well, quite, quite a while. 

This is when she hears slow footsteps approaching. She could have mistook them for something else, any ordinary sound from the live-ins of the fortress, yet if Skyhold is any different in her dreams, it's that she never meets anyone here. 

Not this time, apparently. Well, not that she could blame dreams for being too predictable, anyway. 

_"Vhenan"_ , a familiar voice stings her heart the same very moment she takes a look back. Her eyes meet his eyes, and she realizes it right away, too — that Solas is not merely a shadow in her dream. His look would be too piercing for that. Too… longing.

She isn't sure if there is anything — _anything_ — that would be more breathtaking than this. 

"Solas?" Her voice sounds terribly weak, as if she was fainting, but perhaps that wouldn't be so far-fetched had they not been in a dream. Could one possibly faint while sleeping? She is probably going to know that for sure. 

He stands there, quiet, sullen, nothing but two steps away from her, and it seems unbelievable, after all the effort she's put to searching, after everything they've all been though, after everything just between the two of them. He is just _right there_. 

And he keeps silence for oh so long. 

"I wasn't sure this would be a good idea,” he finally says cocking his head and sighs breathlessly. "I am still not sure either. But it's safe for us to meet here. For now. I've taken care of that.”

This is when she feels a slight impulse in her chest. It's minor and insignificant, especially in comparison to what's happening, but it is enough to make her uncomfortable. And with that, she gets anxious. And with that, the vague impulse seems a little like anger.

"It is safe here,” she repeats, not yet sure herself what she's going to say afterwards. Solas must have noticed the change in her tone; he does not interrupt the lingering pause, and that is strangely irritating. Does he not have anything to say? 

He must be playing with her feelings all over again. Or is it the Fade? It has always been the place that would shed light on their feelings. Or, rather, the place where _she_ would. And Solas could just be using that against her. So what does he want from her now? It should come down to be just about that.

"What do you want?” she asks blatantly as her heart sinks down her chest. It is aching as if it has just been broken, smashed to pieces one more time, and the tiny shards are clawing her guts with fresh wounds. 

"I'd say I wanted to warn you. But I already did, and I doubt that you would listen this time either. So... I missed you, and that is true, _vhenan_ , whatever you might be thinking.”

"I know that you've been looking after me anyway,” she admits. "You have been there in the wolf's disguise. So why come face to face now?”

"Wolves don't talk." Solas says with a slight smile. "That's unfortunate.”

"What did you want to tell me, then?" She crosses her arms, as if it could shield her, as if that sufficed to keep up the calm posture and not let anything — not a single emotion — out. That would've ruined her down to the ground eventually, like an avalanche, and she was not ready to manage it. She was unprepared to meet him here, after all, and her defences were not strong enough.

He might have counted on that, too. She needs to be cautious.

"Time is running out," he looks away. "And I _am_ sorry."

He looks much like the Solas he was back then when they first met. It rings achingly inside her chest, but she doesn't allow herself to falter. It may be just a manipulative trick to dissolve her vigilance. He is Fen'Harel, after all, best renowned for his deception. Whatever the circumstances. 

"Care to elaborate?" she asks, her voice restrained. 

"No. You will know everything soon enough. I presume, your Nightingale is already preparing her reports. I just wanted…" he takes a deep breath. "To see you before you know."

"Know what?" She does not like the turn, she doesn't like it at all. Anxiety knocks on the conscience with deep low notes of an undefined threat. _"Solas!_ "

He is looking at her in a way that she'd prefer to be damned but fall for it even if it was a trick. It feels most sincere, and she can't help but worry. Worry about _him_. 

"I'm not going to tell you now."

"Are you alright?" she blurts out without giving it a second thought. It's all she cares about at the moment, anyway. The bad feeling intensifies. 

Solas smiles sadly. 

"You'd better stop caring about me, _vhenan_ ," he says gently, and that is all it takes to get her voice stuck in her throat. 

“I don’t like the sound of that,” she chuckles nervously, forcing her voice out.

“I guess you won’t like what it actually is, either.” He always talks riddles, but this time it feels more fatalistic than ever. She wonders if it is just her perception, or things are actually that bad. She reaches out to him; she feels the need to actually palpate his presence, whatever the hell is currently going on. He does not pull back from her hand, and her ghost palm cups his cheek. 

“You haven’t brought the Veil down yet, have you?” she asks quietly, somehow knowing the answer; the world without the Veil would certainly feel totally different. It must be something else. 

“Both yes and no-- Unfortunately, explanation would require more time than we actually have. You are going to wake up soon.”

“How would you know?”

And he kisses her. Without any further words, fiercely, longingly, grasping her hair on the back of her head. She finds herself pressing against him, as if she has just been waiting for this, for the reason to _breathe_ him in with her lips. She kisses him back with all the words she wanted to tell him and never did, all the words that could make him change his mind — the words she has not found yet to speak out loud. 

“This is way past a point of no return, Inquisitor,” he whispers to her ear, and suddenly she feels something sticky wet under her fingers, caressing his back. She draws away to see the blood with sheer fear on her face. 

“You’re wounded!”

“I am,” he admits calmly. “Do not worry about me. You’ve got your Inquisition to worry about.”

“Tell me what’s going on in at least a word, Solas!” It's the helpless despair that makes her raise her voice, and it _squeaks_ , and she holds no more defences, as all that is forgotten the moment she realises how bad it is really. “I don’t care about time or long story excuses, you owe me at least the briefest truth!”

“Evanuris,” he breathes out. “That is the briefest that I can give.”

“Evanuris are _here?_ ” she gasps, hoping she's got it all wrong. But all Solas does is nods, and she finds herself terrified to the point she freezes speechless. 

“We’ve got just a few words worth time left,” he tells her, and his gaze — sorrowful, dark, yet somehow shining from the inside — is so mesmerizing that she would better stop the time altogether to prolong the moment. 

Prolong the moment albeit for a few more _seconds_. 

“Is it a farewell, Solas?” 

He falls silent. Few words worth time may be as well considered wasted. 

“Is it?” She looks up into his eyes, trying to imprint their expression, trying to get in and find what he has been hiding from her all this time. 

As if from afar, she hears another pair of rash footsteps approaching. Muffled, hasty, they do not belong to her dream for certain. Solas was right. 

“Solas,” she pleads. _“Dirtha’em re tel'halam*.”_

She blinks towards the loud knocking, and that is all it takes for the dream to slip away, all its reality disappearing in thin air. Yet somehow she hears his voice still echoing in her head. 

_"Ar lath ma, vhenan.”_

**Author's Note:**

> *Tell me it's not the end.


End file.
